Seeking the Significance of Music Education: Essays and Reflections

by Bennett Reimer

Overview

Noted music educator Bennett Reimer has selected 24 of his previously published articles from a variety of professional journals spanning the past 50 years. During that time, he's tackled: -generating core values for the field of music education; -the core in larger societal and educational contexts; -what to teach and how to teach it effectively; -how we need to educate our teachers; -the role of research in our profession; and -how to improve our future status. Reimer precedes each essay with background reflections and his position, both professional and personal, on effectively addressing the issue at hand. The opening 'Letter to the Reader' presents a valuable overview based on his deeply grounded viewpoint. The entire music education profession will benefit from Reimer's perspective on past, present, and future concerns central to the functioning of music education in Seeking the Significance of Music Education: Essays and Reflections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607092377
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	06/16/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	418
File size:	557 KB

About the Author

Bennett Reimer is the John W. Beattie Professor of Music Education Emeritus at Northwestern University, where he was chair of the Music Education Department and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Education and the Musical Experience, a research group of Ph.D. students and faculty. He is the author and editor of some two dozen books and 150 articles dealing with a variety of topics in music, music education, and the arts in education.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Chapter I: Our Values as a School Subject
Chapter 2 Establishing Core Values
Chapter 3 What Music Cannot Do
Chapter 4 Essential and Nonessential Characteristics of Aesthetic Education
Chapter 5 The Experience of Profundity in Music
Chapter 6 Should There Be a Universal Philosophy of Music Education
Chapter 7 Once More with Feeling
Chapter 8 The Core in Larger Contexts
Chapter 9 Selfness and Otherness in Experiencing Music of Foreign Cultures
Chapter 10 Gender, Feminism, and Aesthetic Education: Discourses of Inclusion and Empowerment
Chapter 11 Research and Justification in Arts Education: An Ill-Fated Romance
Chapter 12 Artistic Creativity, Ethics, and the Authentic Self
Chapter 13
Chapter II: Achieving Our Values
Chapter 14 What and How to Teach
Chapter 15 Choosing Art for Education: Criteria for Quality
Chapter 16 What Is Performing with Understanding?
Chapter 17 Merely Listening
Chapter 18 Philosophy in the School Music Program
Chapter 19 Educating Our Teachers
Chapter 20 An Agenda for Music Teacher Education,
Chapter I,
Chapter II
Chapter 21 Avoiding Extremes of Theory and Practice in Music Teacher Education
Chapter 22 Toward a Research-Based Foundation for Doctoral Studies in Music Education
Chapter 23 The Role of Research
Chapter 24 Toward a More Scientific Approach to Music Education Research
Chapter 25 Qualitative Research and the Post-Positivist Mind
Chapter 26 New Brain Research on Emotion and Feeling: Dramatic Implications for Music Education
Chapter 27
Chapter III: Preserving and Enhancing Our Viability
Chapter 28 Our Values in Service of Our Future
Chapter 29 Is Musical Performance Worth Saving?
Chapter 30 Musical Disenchantment and Reenchantment: The Challenge for Music Education
Chapter 31 Music Education for Cultural Empowerment
Chapter 32 The Way It Will Be

What People are Saying About This

Jerome J. Hausman

I have known Bennett Reimer and admired his work for a long time. Seeking the Significance of Music Education is a very special publication. Essays written over a fifty-year timespan are now reprinted (as originally published) along with reflections from a present-day vantage point. As he puts it: 'This book is a kind of intellectual memoir of a life spent grappling with intractable questions relating to music education.' The essays are organized into three parts: Our Values as a School Subject (generating core values; core values in larger contexts); Achieving Our Values (what and how to teach; educating our teachers; the role of research); and Preserving and Enhancing Our Viability (our values in service of our future). So much has happened in the intervening years between the time the essays were written and the present. New technologies have radically altered our means for making and disseminating music. The arts (including music) have become highly politicized. Previous distinctions between 'high' and 'popular' music have been erased, and the image of the artist has changed. Reimer addresses the consequent issues confronting those who would teach music. Indeed, the issues are those that need to be addressed by all art educators. This is an invaluable book for all those who would want to teach art. Reimer is passionate, clear, and convincing in making the case for education in all of the arts.

Editorial Reviews

The entire music education profession will benefit from Reimer's perspective on past, present, and future concerns central to the functioning of music education in Seeking the Significance of Music Education: Essays and Reflections .

National Association for Music Education

Bennett Reimer has secured a unique place in music education history. His close association with the aesthetic education movement and his respected texts devoted to the philosophy of music education have provided professors, public school teachers, and music students the opportunity to think and re-think their position on the validity of music education. From answering the question of 'is music for everyone?' to the role of diversity and cultural education in the music classroom, Reimer has woven an intricate web of thought and historical context to convince even the non-musician of the importance and validity of music education in our schools. His most recent book, Seeking the Significance of Music Education, provides a unique prospective that only Reimer can provide through twenty-four essays from his long and distinguished career. Reimer's first edition of his book A Philosophy of Music Education became closely associated with the term 'aesthetic education.' Much later in 2003, Reimer revised this text considerably in his third edition A Philosophy of Music Education. In this recently revised version, Reimer distances himself from the historically rigid views of the aesthetic education movement. 'A phrase can become a signal of a person's identity. That happens to me with "aesthetic education." The term is in its infancy when I am introduced to it in the mid-1950s, as I begin my serious study of the philosophy of music. It will serve as a powerful organizer for my growing understandings. As its meanings expand and deepen for me and for many others across the field of the arts in education, the idea of aesthetic education becomes so influential as to make it a catchphrase for the entire field's aspirations. My many writings about music education as aesthetic education...lead to my being strongly identified with the term. In one sense, that's fine with me. In another, the identification associates me with a view that eventually deteriorates for some into a narrow, rigid conception of

Teachers College Record - Adam Ballif

The enduring legacy of Bennett Reimer is that, for over 50 years, he has been able to challenge us to think much more deeply about the profession we proudly call music education. In this collection of essays, the reader is again summoned by Reimer’s wise, empathetic, and learned mind as he weaves a brilliant intellectual tapestry that both celebrates and illuminates the role and function of music in our lives, and provides a profoundly eloquent foundation for a practical philosophy for music education. This intellectual memoir is endlessly thought-provoking and will live for generations as one of our discipline’s finest achievements.

Gary McPherson Gary McPherson

It is often difficult to find among scholars in education individuals whose ideas are as deep as they are broad. In Bennett Reimer we have such an individual. The twenty-four essays that constitute this book touch many of the central questions one can raise about music and its place in education. To be able to articulate so clearly what these issues are and how they might be approached is a real achievement, one that Professor Reimer has attained. This book will be an invaluable resource for those preparing to teach in the arts. I recommend it with considerable enthusiasm.

Elliot W. Eisner

This fascinating and exhaustive set of essays confirms Bennett Reimer not only as an inspirational thinker and educator, but as a philosopher of deep humanity whose clarity of thought and expression are equally matched by his breadth of vision, humour, and delight in finely honed language. If you care about or are involved in educating through music, not only in the USA, but worldwide, then this book is essential reading.

George Odam

In this magnificent collection of essays that spans a half century of publication, Bennett Reimer presents some of his most compelling statements on the significance and value of music and music education. His reflections on the essays reveal not only a depth of wisdom and clarity of perspective, but also a personal humility after a life spent grappling with 'intractable questions' related to music education. The book is a rare gift to the profession and will serve as 'the essential Reimer' for years to come.

Marie McCarthy

I have known Bennett Reimer and admired his work for a long time. Seeking the Significance of Music Education is a very special publication. Essays written over a fifty-year timespan are now reprinted (as originally published) along with reflectionsfrom a present-day vantage point. As he puts it: 'This book is a kind of intellectual memoir of a life spent grappling with intractable questions relating to music education.' The essays are organized into three parts: Our Values as a School Subject (generating core values; core values in larger contexts); Achieving Our Values (what and how to teach; educating our teachers; the role of research); and Preserving and Enhancing Our Viability (our values in service of our future). So much has happened in theintervening years between the time the essays were written and the present. New technologies have radically altered our means for making and disseminating music. The arts (including music) have become highly politicized. Previous distinctions between 'high' and 'popular' music have been erased, and the image of the artist has changed. Reimer addresses the consequent issues confronting those who would teach music. Indeed, the issues are those that need to be addressed by all art educators. This is an inva

Jerome J. Hausman

This profound and thought-provoking book is composed of 24 carefully chosen essays representing the best of Bennett Reimer's publications in music education.This book should be required reading for every student seeking a music education degree. Its major strength lies in the multitude of diverse topics that are crucial to the field.

March 2010n Music Teacher

The enduring legacy of Bennett Reimer is that, for over 50 years, he has been able to challenge us to think much more deeply about the profession we proudly call music education. In this collection of essays, the reader is again summoned by Reimer's wise, empathetic, and learned mind as he weaves a brilliant intellectual tapestry that both celebrates and illuminates the role and function of music in our lives, and provides a profoundly eloquent foundation for a practical philosophy for music education. This intellectual memoir is endlessly thought-provoking and will live for generations as one of our discipline's finest achievements.

Gary McPherson

This profound and thought-provoking book is composed of 24 carefully chosen essays representing the best of Bennett Reimer's publications in music education. This book should be required reading for every student seeking a music education degree. Its major strength lies in the multitude of diverse topics that are crucial to the field.

From the Publisher

The entire music education profession will benefit from Reimer's perspective on past, present, and future concerns central to the functioning of music education in Seeking the Significance of Music Education: Essays and Reflections .

National Association for Music Education

This profound and thought-provoking book is composed of 24 carefully chosen essays representing the best of Bennett Reimer's publications in music education.

This book should be required reading for every student seeking a music education degree. Its major strength lies in the multitude of diverse topics that are crucial to the field. March 2010

(Magazine) American Music Teacher

Bennett Reimer has secured a unique place in music education history. His close association with the aesthetic education movement and his respected texts devoted to the philosophy of music education have provided professors, public school teachers, and music students the opportunity to think and re-think their position on the validity of music education. From answering the question of 'is music for everyone?' to the role of diversity and cultural education in the music classroom, Reimer has woven an intricate web of thought and historical context to convince even the non-musician of the importance and validity of music education in our schools. His most recent book, Seeking the Significance of Music Education, provides a unique prospective that only Reimer can provide through twenty-four essays from his long and distinguished career.
Reimer's first edition of his book A Philosophy of Music Education became closely associated with the term 'aesthetic education.' Much later in 2003, Reimer revised this text considerably in his third edition A Philosophy of Music Education. In this recently revised version, Reimer distances himself from the historically rigid views of the aesthetic education movement.
'A phrase can become a signal of a person's identity. That happens to me with "aesthetic education." The term is in its infancy when I am introduced to it in the mid-1950s, as I begin my serious study of the philosophy of music. It will serve as a powerful organizer for my growing understandings. As its meanings expand and deepen for me and for many others across the field of the arts in education, the idea of aesthetic education becomes so influential as to make it a catchphrase for the entire field's aspirations. My many writings about music education as aesthetic education...lead to my being strongly identified with the term. In one sense, that's fine with me. In another, the identification associates me with a view that eventually deteriorates for some into a narrow, rigid conception of
— Adam Ballif, assistant professor of music, Mesa State College

Teachers College Record